CMHP Mentorship Scheme
As part of the UKPPG’s commitment to supporting the development of pharmacists specialising in the practice of psychiatric pharmacy a mentorship scheme has been established.
Many pharmacists express concern about being isolated, and left to deal with mental health problems on their own. Pharmacists feel equally isolated when they are the only pharmacist dealing with psychiatry as part of a general hospital pharmacy service, as those left physically isolated.
The UKPPG committee consider it unacceptable for any pharmacist to work within psychiatry, in an isolated position. We recognise the supportive way in which many psychiatric pharmacists are managed, but we consider "management "is not enough if pharmacists are going to achieve their maximum potential within this speciality.
The UKPPG mentorship scheme thus seeks to support all pharmacists working in psychiatry. We consider that every psychiatric pharmacist should have a mentor.
The role of a mentor is not to replace or undermine any management or supervisory arrangements, in many respects it will support these functions.
We belive that a simple scheme is likely to "work", complex arrangement or rigid systems are likely to prevent the widespread adoption of mentors amongst psychiatrict pharmacists.
In outline the scheme is as follows
There are many of us who will already have "professional friends or colleagues", these are the people we turn to for advice, or just to chew things over when we are not to sure what to do. Those of us who already have such system have a mentor!
This scheme is designed to formally recognise this as an important element of competence to practice and enable all those other pharmacists who do not have mentors to get one.
The onus is on the individual pharmacist to "find" a mentor. No doubt everyone will turn to high profile names in the first instance. It will be up to the prospective "high profile" names to make sure they also only agree to mentor enough pharmacists to do the job "properly". They may also consider their wide range of skills is best suited to mentoring other "mentors".
Some people use many mentors - the use of e-mails to large numbers of pharmacists is one example of the broadest application of mentorship, but this often only works one way - mentorship is a two way process. We need to remind people the definition of mentorship within the UKPPG is broad. The simple test that each pharmacist applies to their mentor is "is it working?" if it's not - then it is up to the individiual to find an alternative.
The first step is for any pharmacist wanting to join the scheme, either as a mentor or mentee to make themselves known to Peter Pratt: (and yes mentors are expected to have mentors too!). They will be invited to write two or three personal lines about what they could offer to their fellow pharmacists.
From this list the mentorship scheme starts. Once we have a system (ie the list) in place we then start to enforce one of our quality standards, that all pharmacists in psychiatry have a mentor - or system for mentorship – that works for them. The measure of success is the end of the phrase "I’m isolated"
Please get your details to Peter or raise the issue in the e-mail discussion group and then we can start a webpage for mentors.
Peter Pratt,
Chief Pharmacist,
Community Health Sheffield
Michael Carlisle Centre
Osborne Road
Sheffield S11 9BF
0114-271-8631
Fax 0114 271 8634
e-mail (home)
e-mail (work)
Peter Pratt, March 2000
